If you couldn’t be bothered to sit up glued to Sky Sports News, keep refreshing your Twitter feed or just had something else better to do then you may have missed the late news that two players left Norwich at the eleventh hour, so to speak.
One on loan and the other decided to cut short his loan with the Canaries.
The first of those was Isak Thorvaldsson who has joined Fleetwood Town on-loan for the rest of the season.
Iceland U19 captain Isak Thorvaldsson has joined the Cod Army on loan until the end of the season from @NorwichCityFC. 🤝
👉 https://t.co/i3L6rntwTI#OnwardTogether | #DeadlineDay pic.twitter.com/ojVkjB4Xet
— Fleetwood Town FC (@ftfc) January 31, 2020
The 18-year-old has made 13 appearances in Premier League 2 for the Canaries’ U23 side this season, scoring once and playing at that level at that age shows that Isak has something about him. He is also Captain of the Icelandic U19 side, which again shows that he has a very promising future ahead of him.
Fleetwood Head coach Joey Barton said: “Isak is a player that we have been watching for a while, and when the chance came to bring him to our club, we jumped at it.
“He’s a tough tacking midfielder, who will bring competition to our squad. He’s impressed in Norwich’s U23s despite only being 18, and we look forward to seeing him bring that form into our group.”
Isak joins the Cod Army as they currently sit 11th in League One, six points off the playoff positions. This is a decent move and a chance to play at a good standard for one so young.
The other late news coming out of Carrow Road was that Ibrahim Amadou has left the club, having cut short his loan. He has moved back to Spain and will spend the rest of the season in La Liga with Leganes.
Ibrahim Amadou’s loan spell at Norwich City has come to an end.
Everyone at Norwich City wishes Ibrahim the very best for his future career.
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) January 31, 2020
Amadou joined Norwich last summer on a season-long loan deal from Sevilla with City having negotiated an option to buy at the end of the season for a reported €10m, if they were to stay in the Premier League, of course.
As it turned out, we never saw the best of Amadou, who looked like he had a lot more to give. The Frenchman made 13 appearances but barely played in his preferred position of defensive midfield, mostly having to play at centre back in the early months of the season due to City’s defensive injury crisis.
He made his home and full debut in the 3-2 win over Manchester City where he didn’t put a foot wrong dealing with Sergio Aguero and co, making me think we’ve got a player on our hands here.
As it turned out though, other Premier League opponents exposed his limitations while playing at the back and against Aston Villa and Manchester United in particular, he struggled as a central defender.
From what Michael Bailey says, it was the player who wanted to cut short the loan and there will be no part-refund but it will save the club five months worth of wages.
IBRAHIM AMADOU: His time at Norwich City is over. Loan cancellation done; will be confirmed later tonight.
In the end, the man himself didn’t want to be here.
No partial loan fee refund, but Norwich will at least save his wages for the rest of the season.#NCFC @TheAthleticUK
— Michael Bailey (@michaeljbailey) January 31, 2020
Ibrahim Amadou's stats in the #PL for #NCFC. pic.twitter.com/qZidWhW3Xl
— TheOther14 (@Other14The) January 31, 2020
His stats weren’t too bad when he did play but the impressive form of Alex Tettey meant that a position that he was expected to play in wasn’t available. Daniel Farke clearly felt that Tettey was still a better option at DM and Amadou obviously decided he’d rather being playing than sitting on the bench. I don’t blame him for that.
Since joining Norwich in 2012, the former Norwegian international has been the preferred choice as midfield destroyer for a succession of Canary managers. Even when Farke became City’s Head Coach in 2017 and reportedly told Tettey that he intended to play in a different way in midfield, Tettey still forced his way back into the team.
Melvin Sitti looks likely to be the next player to attempt to inherit Tettey’s midfield crown and with Alex turning 34 in April and being out of contract in the summer, he can’t keep going forever.
He has been a stalwart for City and his form this year and his ability to play the number of games he has, has been very impressive. He has improved under Farke even more.
OTBC